The Arts Council wants to make sure children can make, share and enjoy all kinds of art.
The arts include dance, music, stories, poetry, film, painting, putting on plays, going to shows, making and building, and much more…
Children have a right to participate in cultural life and the arts. This is part of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was ratified by Ireland in 1992.
The Arts Council’s ten-year strategy Making Great Art Work (2016-2025) includes a key objective to plan and provide for children and young people.
We do this by:
Investing in artists, groups and organisations who make art by, with and for children and young people
Working in partnership with government departments, local authorities, and others whose decisions impact on children and young people’s participation in the arts
Investing in research that improves our understanding of children’s participation in the arts
Encouraging children and young people’s to share their ideas and listening to what they say
Our strategy
The Arts Council’s ten-year strategy Making Great Art Work (2016-2025) includes a key objective to plan and provide for children and young people. The actions in this area are as follows:
Objective 8 – Plan and provide for children and young people
• We will advocate for the centrality of the arts in formal education at all levels and for the provision of quality vocational training in the arts
• We will work with the Departments of Arts and of Education to achieve full implementation of the Arts in Education Charter
• We will invest in artists, arts organisations and key programmes dedicated to developing high quality work in arts-in-education and youth arts, and we will support the provision of excellent arts experiences for young people in the public domain
• We will make provision for children and young people a key focus of our relationship with local government
• We will incorporate our commitment to young people into the mainstream of our decision-making and, where appropriate, into our funding agreements with arts organisations.
Arts Council Policy Development - Young People, Children and Education
We are currently reviewing our policy in this area and will be developing our priorities for the coming years.
With the help of a child and youth advisory group, we have developed a survey for children and young people in Ireland so we can hear their views. If you would like to share copies of the survey with the children and young people you work with, please contact ypce@artscouncil.ie.
If you or your organisation would like to share your views as part of this process, please contact ypce@artscouncil.ie to find out more.